


Without Flinching

by jonasnightingale



Series: Roan Lives [5]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Friendship, Gen, I Don't Even Know, Roan Lives (The 100), clarke needs a hug, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:13:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25242199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonasnightingale/pseuds/jonasnightingale
Summary: Bit by bit her family came back to her.
Relationships: Clarke Griffin & Emori, Clarke Griffin & Eric Jackson, Clarke Griffin & John Murphy, Clarke Griffin & Nathan Miller, Clarke Griffin & Roan, Gaia & Clarke Griffin, Jordan Jasper Green & Clarke Griffin
Series: Roan Lives [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1424269
Comments: 1
Kudos: 47





	Without Flinching

**Author's Note:**

> “When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family. ”  
> ― Jim Butcher

Roan watched as her family came back to her. As day by day she became slightly less alone.

He saw it in Murphy who stopped fearing whatever fucked up connection they shared (love, he knew it was love) and started showing up more. Murphy who could be found behind her right shoulder in all kru meetings. Who was the one to stand against Raven when she glared daggers or sent barbed words to their old leader. He sat with Clarke in the mess-hall, distracted her from the whispers and the stares, made her laugh. He threw snacks to her when she couldn’t stomach mealtimes, dropped a lazy arm around her shoulders after tough days.

He saw it in Miller, whose shoulder she would let her head fall against around the campfire. Whose eyes chartered her across the compound. Miller who followed her on her long walks and stepped between her and angry Wonkru members. He saw family in the way Miller’s hand would smooth across her hair, in the way his fingers drummed along her collarbone. 

And Emori, who would let Clarke work on technical projects alongside her, eager to learn what skills Clarke had gleaned from her months in Becca’s lab. Who would just join her sometimes, throughout the day, without agenda or cause. Emori who was there, not because of John, but because of a debt she could never replay, because of a girl she scarcely knew who had sacrificed for her again and again. 

Jackson didn’t spend much time with Clarke - a passing smile, a quick squeeze of her hand - but he was there for her in the only way he could manage. He looked after Madi, treated her like a kid sister in a way he had failed to Clarke. He told her stories about Clarke as the young girl in the hospital corner they so frequently forgot she’d been - inquisitive, tenacious, determined. He saw so much of that girl in Madi. And he told her about Abby when he could. He vowed to look after the remaining Griffin’s as Abby and Jake had always looked after him. 

Gaia’s presence in Madi’s life soon melded into a presence in Clarkes. Spirited discussions and debates over drinks, cups of tea in the morning sun. She was a friend untainted by the worst of Clarke’s history, a kin over whom she was not responsible. And Clarke was able to unload some of her trauma, some of her deepest regrets and concerns. They healed together and watched Madi do the same.

Jordan came back slowly, but he came back. And with so much of his parents in him, Clarke wasn’t sure how she’d managed to keep him at arms length so long. He sassed her and got excited about things she found on her walks and didn’t back down from a fight. Eventually they’d found a way to be there for each other. With Clarke not looking at Jordan as her friend’s son she needed to protect and Jordan not seeing her as just the hero of his stories. They found solid ground as equals; shared memories and shed tears over their joint loss and tried to do better at every turn.

And she had him, to watch her, to remind her what she had not lost. She and Madi shared his shanty and he held her through nightmares and nauseating blood-noses. They all learnt to tolerate each other, for Clarke, and then to love each other. There were ghosts amongst them, and rumours, and spaces saved for the day Raven relented, the day the others returned. But until then, they kept Clarke breathing, as she had so often kept them.


End file.
